Broken cam. Engine Replacement Procedures?

[coyothunter]

New guy here. Hope you can help. I am pretty sure the cam in my 97 3.4 is broken. I pulled the valve cover and the rear cylinder (#6?) has no movement in the rockers while the rest work fine. I can get a used engine for less than $500 and was wondering how hard it really is to drop the motor on this thing. I have been told it won't come out the top, and from the looks of things I believe it. How hard is it? The book pays 20 hours.
My next question is interchangability. will an 03 or 04 vin e engine out of a van fit in my 97? Do I have to change anything?
Thanks in advance for any help.
Rod

[cdru]

The #6 cylinder is the front right most cylinder. The back row is numbered 1-3-5, the front 2-4-6. If indeed the last rear cylinder isn't moving, then cylinder 6 wouldn't move either as it's cam lobes come after 5's. Another way to check would be to see if you have oil pressure. The cam shaft drives the oil pump. It's the last thing on the shaft. If it turns, it's not your cam. Do either of that cylinder rockers move for the cylinder? If you really want to know, remove the intake manifold. You can see the cam shaft through the opening and just touching the starter would instantly tell you if it's turning or not. If your going to drop the engine, you have to remove the intake manifold anyways.

You are correct that the engine doesn't come out of the top. There is a subframe that gets unbolted and lowered and you basically lift the van over the engine once it's down (assuming you don't have a lift in your garage. If the book says 20 hours, I'd say plan on at least 30 hours for a shade tree mechanic.